Unprofessional paid photographers

I am sick and tired of so called "professional" photographers who feel threatened by amateurs

Take a look at this thread:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1014&message=32263324

I started it off saying my faith in professional photographers was restored. They had to show me that I was mistaken.

Heaven forbid I should mention that I had bad experiences with so called professionals or that I would not deal with a professional that didn't provide RAW files, or that a professional might do work for free for friends or family. (This apparently is a cardinal sin that has you expelled from the church of the photo professional).

What I got for my trouble was a viscious flame that included name calling, misrepresentation of what I said, ridicule of my profession and anyone associated with it, and ridiculous diatribe about trusting photographers and not requiring raw.

As far as I'm concerned, any professional photographer that wants to do work for me must

- Be polite and professional to all including amateur photographers
- Shoot in RAW and provide the RAW images to me
- Give me unrestricted rights to use the work
- Understand that the customer hires them to do a job, not for the privilege of becoming their personal revenue stream
- Not feel threatened that amateurs are willing to give away for free

Apparently, this is too much to ask even at a few thousand dollars a pop. What you get instead is not worth describing. These people overvalue themselves and will price themselves out of the industry as digital equipment continues to improve. You'd have more honesty and less back stabbing at a convention of used car dealers.

If people really are willing to pay USD36000 for 200 pictures of cats, then they're equally responsible for creating these prima donnas. My God, how good can a well exposed picture of a cat be worth? How much better are you going to do than any other pro with a decent lighting setup?

If you hire a professional photographer for an event, and they refuse to discuss what you want, or if they start telling you about how they don't release the RAW files because it will violate their artistic vision or because they're doing you a favour providing you with their edit view of your event, walk away. The only reason they're withholding those files is so they can make a profit. They aren't artists. They're fools who think you're stupid enough to believe that withholding something from you is for their own good.